Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: whining and complaining (Page 4 of 12)

Not quite the “Holiday” we were planning

July 25, 2012 / / 1 Comment

We still have Marie, our exchange student from France, with us, so we are really trying to do fun things every day. Some days I don’t want to do fun things, I will admit, and it wore me down when Ryan was gone for a week and everything was all on me. We’ve gone to plays, concerts, swimming, laser tag, shopping, out to eat, and many other things. Saturday night I took all six of them up to Salt Lake to go to the pioneer day concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and that experience just might have pushed me over the edge. Kids (not Marie, of course…she never complains) were grumpy and complaining, and even though I was working my hardest to make things exciting and fun for them, and they were not appreciating my hard work.

When we got seated in the conference center, approximately an hour before the concert was to start, the complaints and declarations of boredom from a certain young man were driving me crazy. Then a family came and sat behind us. I overheard as the teenage boy said to his mom, “What? The show does start for an HOUR? Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME? What am I supposed to do for an HOUR, just sit here and die of boredom?!” His mother gave him some motherly answer (I must admit I didn’t hear what she said, but she said it in a nice voice). But this young man was not easily appeased. “Hey, Mom? How about NEXT time there’s one of these things, you just don’t bring me? Can we make that deal? You just come by yourself and don’t make me come to one of these again, ok? Mom?” Mom was not answering. It took every bit of willpower I had left in me not to whip around and slap that young man, or at the very least inform him that his mother was only TRYING to give him a little cultural experience, and if he didn’t shut his trap immediately, he’d have to answer to ALL the mothers sitting near him. Seriously, folks, I should be given a commendation for my patience. Instead, I gave my own bored 8 year old my Kindle so that he could play a game or something to keep him busy, and I read the program.

The concert, once it started, was really, really great, and I was glad that I had dragged them up to Salt Lake SO early to have dinner, goof around at City Creek, and see the concert.

On Tuesday, the actual 24th of July, I was excited for the day. Even though it was expensive, we had decided to take everyone up to Snowbird and get day passes so we could slide and bungie and zipline and all that. It would be a splurge, but hopefully something that the kids will remember! First we had our ward Pioneer Day breakfast, and the kids were actually up before me! They were ready to go by 7:30. We left before 9, to avoid the fire truck and everyone getting wet, came home and packed up some food and got everybody in the car.

The car would NOT start. Seriously? What is going on here? It started just fine yesterday, and today, it won’t even turn over? We all sat in the car as Ryan tried over and over to start it. I guess we’re not going anywhere right now, so let’s get out of the car. After we found a mechanic’s shop not too far and open on the holiday, we had to call AAA to see if they would tow our car from our house to the repair shop. Yes, they will. When the tow truck came, I called the kids outside (they need SOME excitement, right?) and we all watched the poor tow truck guy hook up our Suburban and take it away.

Left with no car that would take all 8 of us, our plans were cancelled. We watched the parade on tv, then the kids played some video games and Cole started mowing the lawn.

In the afternoon, we got a call from the repair shop. I had no idea that a new fuel pump could POSSIBLY cost that much! And it wasn’t just the fuel pump and filter, but the water pump as well. Oh, and some belt. Let’s just say it’s not quite as much as college tuition for a semester for our son, but it’s more than I paid for my red couch.

Shall we talk about the couch? Yeah. Ryan wasn’t going to mention that to me until after we had our fun day in the mountains, but some things you can’t hide. My red leather couch is totally sagging in the back. Probably from too many kids FLOPPING on it. They continued to use it, even though it was getting lower and lower. (Can you see how Marie is being swallowed into the couch?) I pulled the bottom off to look at what we’ve got going on here, and I’m not sure if I know how it’s supposed to look, or if it’s even something we can repair ourselves. Oh, and here’s what I found when I tipped the couch over. Can you say, “NO food in the family room?” Hmmm. I don’t think my kids quite remembered that rule.

While Cole was mowing the lawn, he came in to tell Ryan that the back of the lawnmower was broken, and things were falling off. Oh, seriously? Luckily, Ryan discovered that it was just a problem with some bolts that had been sheered off, and he was able to go to the hardware store and easily fix that one. (Thank goodness!)

We decided that after dinner we would go to a baseball game at UVU. Something to do to get us all out of the house, and if we were lucky, there would be fireworks afterward. We did have to take two cars, and did you know they charge you per car for parking there? But we all made it and found a place on the hill to settle in and watch the game. I think we’d been there about 15 minutes when it began to rain. But the sun was shining, so it couldn’t be MUCH rain, right? Ahem. In keeping with the tradition of the rest of our day, we all got quite wet. We used the blankets we had been sitting on to try to hide us from the rain, but then the blankets all got wet. Whatever! Thankfully, the rain didn’t last too long, and we were able to stick it out and ‘watch’ the rest of the game. Finally the game was over and there were, as promised, fireworks. They were SO close and loud and fast. It was a GREAT fireworks show.

Here’s John doing my hair, waiting for the game to end.

So, even though it was a pretty crappy day, we tried to end it on a positive note.

We went home and had ice cream sundaes. Yes, it was nearly midnight, but I had told the kids they could have ice cream, so ice cream it was.

Today, we still have no suburban. I am waiting to find out the damage and trying to mentally prepare myself for the WAY TOO MUCH money it will cost and how can we possibly afford this freak out that I will have.

Happy Pioneer day to you all!

There’s nothing like a visit from the Police to liven up your night

April 27, 2012 / / 2 Comments

At 2:10 am the phone rang. Since it had been a windy and rainy night, I had earplugs in to combat the noise, so I didn’t hear it right away. But I got up and grabbed it right AFTER the answering machine picked it up on ring 3 1/2 (I still have never figured out how to change that to pick up LATER. It drives me crazy! How am I supposed to get to the phone by the 3rd ring? Who does that?). Anyway, I grabbed the phone, said hello, and a sweet voice said, “This is the 9-1-1 operator, and we got a call from this number. Is everything alright?”
” What?” I croaked.
She very calmly and patiently asked if this was the Erickson residence, and said that she had gotten a call, and was there an emergency? She sounded kind of like my neighbor. Was this a joke?
I fumbled around saying that I don’t think anyone called 9-1-1, but I would have to check. I was still kind of wondering if this was a dream. I said I would check things out.
“I will send a patrol car over,” she said.
By now Ryan’s up, too. He said he had just barely gone to bed, and he didn’t call. So, we made the rounds. I woke up our poor houseguest Robin, asked her if she had been using the phone, checked on each of the kids, and they were all in their beds, and Ryan checked the phones. By now I was awake, and thinking this out. How on earth did they get a call from us? Could it have come from one of the kids’ cell phones? If it had, why would they call the home phone? I climbed back in bed, and then there was a knock on the door. Oh, yeah, the patrol car. I look out the window, and sure enough, there’s a police car outside. We dashed downstairs, and open the door to the police in our pajamas.

“We got a 9-1-1 from this number. Is everything ok?” Said the nice officer.
We then explained our befuddlement at who had called, and thanked them for coming out and said it looked like everyone was safe. They left.

I checked on all the kids again. Really made sure they were breathing.

How in the world was I going to go back to sleep after this? I’m such a worrier at night as it is, and this wasn’t helping.

Ryan and I said a prayer, and then we ‘went back’ to sleep. Or, Ryan went to sleep and I obsessed about every sound I heard. The ‘whatifs’ finally subsided, and I don’t remember much after 4, so I must have fallen asleep. The 6:20 alarm was harsh, I tell you.

So, it is officially a mystery. But things are fine. The house is fine. The foster bunnies are ok. The chickens are ok. Everything seems to be in order.

Maybe I dreamed it all. Except if I did, why would Ryan had had the same dream?

Oh, well, it’ll be a funny story we can laugh about.
Later.
Much. Later.

We’ve had better days, how about you?

April 2, 2012 / / 3 Comments

A rough day was had by all. In the words of my almost 16 year old, when I asked her how her day was, she said, “It sucked.” Allow me to elaborate a bit.

Today my assignment was in first grade and John and Jenna’s school. I hadn’t yet subbed for this particular teacher, but she never seemed really friendly when I would see her at school, so I didn’t know what to expect. Imagine my surprise when the class was well behaved and quiet. Until the pm group arrived at 9:15. You see, our school is an extended day school, where half of the kids come at 8:00 and do reading and writing with a smaller group. They are called the early birds. The ‘later gators’ come at 9:15. When the early birds go home at 2:15, the late kids stay and do their small group reading and writing. Guess how many kids want to do reading and writing after half of their class goes home? None. I’m just sayin.

Anyway, things were still going reasonably well, but one girl straggled in late, wearing pajama pants and slippers. She dragged around, telling me how she did not feel good, but that her mom said she couldn’t miss work one more day or she would get fired. Too much information, little girl. While the kids were in the library, I stopped in at the office, and mentioned that I had a little girl who was dragging around acting like she was sick, but her mom was at work. Office lady knew EXACTLY who I was talking about, and told me that this child was always acting sick, and her mom had laid down the law and wasn’t going to let her play wolf again. Hmmm. With that information, I stopped feeling bad for this poor little girl, and saw her as the manipulator that she probably is.

At math time, this little girl just sat with her head on the desk NOT doing any work. But at least she was quiet. Another boy in the room wouldn’t do any of his work AND his main goal in life seemed to be to misbehave and disrupt the rest of the class. How had I not noticed him before? Oh, he was at off with an aid or special rescourse teacher. We made it to lunch, but the principal announced that it would be a shortened recess day, because of the cold temp and the STRONG wind. So, that’s 10 minutes less time for lunch for me. After lunch, this little girl followed me around complaining of how sick she was, and that no one would play with her. When it was reading time, she curled up on a couple of bean bags and ‘fell asleep’. I wasn’t sure if she was really sleeping, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let her sleep through my science lesson.

At about the time when the early birds left to go home, that is when the day started to fall apart. Little sick girl decides it’s time to up her sick quotient, and throws up on the floor. Oh, great. Either she wasn’t faking, or she can make herself throw up. The kids who ventured over to look at it closely said it looked like she had been eating crayons. Whatever, I’m staying right over here. Why don’t you go into the bathroom? I asked her. No, I’m ok, she said. What? Go in the bathroom and wash you face and hands, I instructed, and then you can go to the office and call home. Let the office deal with her, right? All the kids are EXTREMELY fascinated by this turn of events, and when the janitor comes, there was not ONE little one reading, I can tell you that.

Meanwhile, I looked at my phone and saw a text from Cole that said “John is bleeding and he banged up his lip. What should we do?” It is times like this when I feel like I am certainly in the wrong place. I should be home, helping my OWN CHILD who got hurt right as he was leaving school, not stuck at school dealing with another child’s throw up. I covertly texted him back (since teachers aren’t supposed to be using cell phones at school, either) and told him to use some ice in a bag on the injury, and I would be home in an hour. He texted back a few minutes later and assured me that John was fine, he had calmed down and was watching tv. I am SO thankful that Cole didn’t have to stay late after school today. Usually he’s not home until 4 or so, but today he must have gotten home at about the same time as John and Jenna got home.

To keep this post from getting TOO long, the barf got cleaned up. Sick girl went home. Obnoxious boy did ZERO work, except for one sentence that I forced him to write while the other kids wrote 8 sentences in their journals. I came home to see my boy looking like this.

It got him out of piano lessons today, and he seems like he will recover. With a little neosporin and some Band-aids he’ll be just fine.

My red chicken coop, looks like this.

(please excuse the quality of this picture, it’s taken from the house, through a window.)
Some strong winds hit these parts. Ugh. I’m trying to get the chicks and chickens all taken care of so that we can leave them for spring break, and now this happens?

At times like this I think of one of my favorite children’s books, Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse,


and when her favorite teacher, Mr. Slinger, says,
“Today was a difficult day.
Tomorrow will be better.’
-Mr. Slinger”
Kevin Henkes, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

Or, as Howard Jones sings, Things can only get better.
Now, if you excuse me, I have to go make dinner, and see if I can find out why the teenager’s day sucked. Wish me luck.

Winter..whenever it comes

March 2, 2012 / / 2 Comments

We’ve had an odd winter this year. Not much snow in December or January, then we get pounded the end of Feb and beginning of March. I had a white knuckle drive to Salt Lake on Wednesday night. I was going about 10 miles per hour for quite a stretch on the freeway, just hoping I could stay in my lane and eventually get downtown for rehearsal. Thursday night’s drive home from SLC was not bad until I hit Utah county, and then it was pretty blizzardy.

After the wind all night, what snow we had is now in waves and drifts.

And when I look out at the chicken coop, I see this.

It looks cold out there. I don’t want to go out and feed them, and I’m pretty sure they don’t want to be let into their run, since it’s all snowy and their little feet would be very cold.

Speaking of cold little feet, I told my kids that today was definitely a BOOTS day, with hats and gloves and COATS (not just hoodies like they usually wear). Some of them found those articles, some did not. But off to school they did go. Through the snow.

I was quite enjoying our “California Winter”.

Just a reminder that you don’t want to miss Sunday’s Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast. We will be playing three songs! Two with the choir and one by ourselves, and it’s a majorly hard song, so I hope it works ok.

Now, I’m off to go make Eagle cookies.

Because when I was at the scout store (again) I couldn’t resist this cute Eagle cookie cutter. So, if any of you find yourself in need of an eagle cookie cutter, let me know, I could totally lend it to you.

Why I am not looking forward to this day

February 21, 2012 / / 3 Comments


Back in elementary school, one thing we liked to do was play on the teeter-totter. Today kids probably don’t even know what that thing is, since some time ago, they were removed from playgrounds. Too dangerous or something. That and merry-go-rounds. Both of those things would make me seriously ill NOW. Up and down and round and round…gettin’ queasy just typing those words. But as kids, we used to think nothing of flinging ourselves and our friends around in circles, or bobbing up and down with a friend on the other side. I remember it well, that fateful day in 4th grade. I was balancing on one end of the teeter-totter. I can’t remember who exactly was sitting across from me, but it could have been any one of my friends. She must have jerked downward, or gotten off, causing me to jerk forward. SMASH. Graceful me, I hit my face on the metal bars of that teeter-totter. I ended up fat lipped and bloody, in the office for some ice. Oh, that fateful day. I actually hit that front tooth so hard, that it’s been injured ever since. That tooth slowly became discolored, just a little bit darker than the other front tooth.

Later in life (much later), when we started to go to our current dentist, he said, “That front tooth is dead. You’ll need a root canal on that someday.” RIGHT. Like I’m going to let that happen. I went on my merry way, an avid brusher and a sometimes flosser. I have pretty decent teeth, and haven’t needed much work done on them in years (aside from that one cavity last year). Until one day a couple of weeks ago when I started feeling quite a bit of discomfort. We had been out for pizza, and the hot of the pizza and the cold of my drink sent a shooting pain through my mouth. Uh-oh. Red flag there. That tooth hurt a little bit the whole next day. Sadly, I had to teach first grade that day, but the kids didn’t really notice how I was shielding that front tooth from cold with my tongue. I called the dentist on my lunch break to schedule appointments. But of course, by the time my appointment came around the next week, that tooth wasn’t hurting any more. But when they asked if any teeth had been bothering me, I had to be truthful and mention that front tooth. We took x-rays and the dentist came in to consult. He explained to me that we should get this done as soon as we can, because otherwise I’ll be calling him in the middle of the night desperate for pain meds or help.

When I expressed to him my reluctance to allow him to do a flippin root canal on my, he explained what they would do, and how it’s really not any worse than getting a filling, blah, blah, blah. “And if you are really nervous, we can give you some Valium before we numb you up just to take the edge off,” he explained. “In fact, I can write you a scrip for that right now, and you can take it before you come. You’ll have to have someone drive you, though.” Sign me up.

Well, today is the day. Ugh. I wish the appointment were in the morning, but it’s not until afternoon, so I have to WORRY about it all day. Ryan will come home and take me there, and then come back for me later. And then I will go to bed.

And worry I do. What if I say something really embarrassing when I’m doped up? What if it hurts really really bad? What if they mess up and I end up with no front tooth? What if the drugs make me nauseated and I have to throw up? What if???

So, I guess I will muddle through this and chalk it up to experience (or blog fodder). Wish me luck!

Hello, Monday!

February 6, 2012 / / 2 Comments

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It’s Monday morning and my kitchen counter looks like this.
Sigh.
We have two different school projects going on there, if you can’t tell.
Megan is building an art piece from junk, hence the broken Roomba with things dangling.

Natalie had to make a scale model of some kind of food, so she made a miniature cake mix.

Not shown on this counter, but also messing up my kitchen would be two valentine’s boxes that are being worked on (one is a cow, and one an owl).

Add to that the dishes from Sunday, and the general mess from making lunches, etc, and the Sunday paper that is now on the counter.

So, my counter looks like a bomb went off, and it will take me hours to recover from the weekend, while NOT DISTURBING their works in progress of course.

That’s what Mondays are for.

Why my nose is so big

January 10, 2012 / / 5 Comments

This post is for my friend Susan, who absolutely loves this story.

When the kids were little, I used to take them in to those photography places for their free 8×10. They would send the coupons around their birthdays so you would go in, have their pictures taken, and then see HOW adorable they looked and buy lots and lots. Well, yes, I got suckered into buying the package one or two times. I folded under the pressure. Then one day I got smart.

The sales lady was showing me the proofs and exclaiming about how wonderful they looked and how cute my kids were (true, that!), and asked me which package I would like to purchase today.
“I’ll just take this one in the 8X10, please,” I said, determined to stick to my guns this time.
“Oh, SUUURRELY you must need more than just the one print. These are wonderful for the grandparents.” She went on in her best sales voice.
That’s it. I was tired of being pushed around by these salespeople just because I only wanted to get the “free” print. “We’ve only got one grandmother,” I said, “and she’s blind.”
So ring it up.
I can’t remember what slick Miss Saleslady said to me, then, but there was no pressure.
Genius! Why hadn’t I thought of that before!? I haven’t used that little lie again (although I might have to), but I have gotten a chuckle every time I tell that story, or just think about it. Feel free to drop that one the next time some photo salesperson is pressuring you to buy.

Well, today I had to exaggerate the truth again.
Someone called me from one of those travel places. I swear I do NOT fill out those forms all the time, but I must have entered a contest at the Highland Fling, which is our town’s summer celebration. This is not the first call I’ve gotten about the “FREE” vacation offers, where all you have to do is drag your spouse to some “short” “no-pressure” presentation, and claim your FREE vacation. I have in fact gotten my spouse to attend one or two of these things, and I know enough to not ask him to do that again. So, when I got the call today about the FREE vacation and could my spouse and I come to the presentation, blah, blah, it just slipped out.
“My spouse and I are separated, so I don’t think that is going to work,” I said.
(We are in fact currently ‘separated’. He is in Las Vegas on a business trip. Of course, if he were just at work for the day, I could still say that. We aren’t together in the same room, are we?)
“You are your spouse are separated?” I could hear her voice deflate, “Oh, I’m sorry about that.” And she couldn’t get off the phone fast enough.
Ha! Take that Miss Telemarketer!

So, no, I don’t set out with the intention to lie, but they just make it so darn easy! So, if my nose looks bigger to you today, you’ll know why.

On the edge

August 28, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I consider myself a fairly rational and calm person. I do. But really, I’m just one snafu away from an emotional breakdown.

It was a hard week for me. Nothing huge, but a lot of little things adding up to some big stress.
-Megan cut her finger and had to get stitches,
-It was the first week of school and all the back to school stuff with finding classes and meeting teachers and paying fees and more fees,
-I have a very big PTA responsibility this year and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with that,
-John had his very first pack meeting ever and I couldn’t go because it was the same night as bells rehearsal, and Ryan couldn’t go because he was out of town. I felt terrible that I couldn’t be there for him, but thankfully Megan was available to take him, and I hear she did a good job as stand in parent. She even accepted my Bobcat award mother’s pin for me.
-I’m totally out of shape and sluggish, and need to get back to exercising,
-There’s the primary program coming up, and these things don’t happen spontaneously, unfortunately,
-Ryan was out of town for a week. Not just out of town, but out of the country with something like a 14 hour time difference, so I couldn’t just call if I needed to talk to him,
-My computer crashed, and like I said, my main man was out of town, and my back-up computer guy couldn’t fix it for me. I did have access to the main man’s computer, so I could at least use the internet and access my incoming email, but then when son was doing homework, that computer turned itself off and then we couldn’t get it started up again because it’s all password protected and complicated. So we were forced off the grid.

-Daughter lost her phone at Trafalga in Orem. She didn’t realize she didn’t’ have it until we were back on the freeway heading home. When we got home we called it (maybe she just left it at home, right?), but got no answer. We sent texts that said, “If you find this phone, please call…” and listed our home number. It really irks me when people are not honest. If I found a phone, I would certainly look through the contacts and find “Home” or something like that, or at least call the number that was texted to me. OR, I would turn it into the lost and found. That is not what this person did. The person that picked up her phone immediately called someone in Payson. (I looked it up! Cool that you can do that, huh?) When I tried to call that number, it was forwarding to another number or something, and I couldn’t get ahold of a person. Had to suspend service on that phone. The funniest thing was, in order to call Trafalga to ask if someone had turned in a phone, I had to look up the number, right? I have no computer, Ryan’s computer won’t turn on, I don’t have a phone book. I had to text Cole, who was at a friend’s house, ask him to look up the number, and send it to us. Crippled without technology. Crippled, I tell you.
-I had to go to a 2 hour long orientation at Kelly services to find out more hoops I have to jump through in order to substitute teach. Oh, the joys.
-People, namely my junior high carpool, are flaking on me.

As I was driving and feeling lonely and sorry for myself and started to cry in the car, I wondered WHY in the world I was being such a BABY and letting all of this get to me. Wait. What week is this? Oh. Hormones. Duh. I HATE those hormones and what they do to me approximately one week of every month. I tried to tell myself to buck up and stop getting so emotional, but that wasn’t really helping.

Instead, I made a mental list of the things that were really, really great. A “count your blessings moment”.

+I don’t have to drive my high school kids to school. With early morning seminary and HUGE amounts of road construction, this is TRULY a blessing. I am SO glad that Cole can drive both himself and Megan to school and that we are able to provide him with a vehicle.
+The kids all seem to be happy with their classes and teachers so far. With 5 kids in 3 different schools, that adds up to about 30 teachers, and I am SO thankful that they are treating my children with kindness and respect (so far), and nobody has come home declaring that they hate school and they are never going back again. (It’s early, I know, but so far so good.)
+Cole is nearly done with his Eagle project. He completed his last two merit badges and I can actually feel a tiny glimmer of hope that we may get this thing pulled off before his 18th birthday in 7 months.
+Facebook. Yes, I’m thankful for facebook. Because of facebook, I was in contact with an old friend of mine who is now living in Singapore. I told him that Ryan would be there, got the two of them communicating, and they actually had Ryan over for dinner while he was there. I also have felt less lonely and more connected to friends, even when my computer wasn’t working and I really didn’t have full use of my email. Yes, I know there are a lot of negatives to facebook, but for me, it’s been a positive thing, and this week especially, I’m thankful for it.
+My mother-in-law. I casually mentioned to my MIL that my children wanted a “Grabber” to reach things. Grandma has one (Grandma is pretty short, so it makes sense) and they thought it was so cool. I didn’t ask for one, I just said that Megan, specifically, was wanting one, and on Tuesday, they showed up with some yellow squash and a grabber. How nice is that?
+My house is not being pounded by a hurricane. Or an earthquake. Or any other such natural disasters. Record breaking heat? Yes. Huge thunderstorms & power outages? Yes, but no flooding, and we can put up with that. We have air conditioning and we have water.
+My children are safe and healthy.
+My husband does return to me.
+My car works.
+I live in the most beautiful area. Have you looked around lately at the mountains, the sky, the clouds? It’s gorgeous out there! Flowers are blooming, my sunflowers (even though the horses totally ate the tops off of them) are flowering, my garden is doing well in the heat, I have tons of zucchini, there are peaches and even apples on the trees in the ‘orchard’ in my back yard, and it’s beautiful. I just need to spend a few moments out with the chickens in the backyard to be reminded of the beauty of nature.
+My phone works.
+My family. My parents spent their Saturday with us at the dinosaur museum (actually they were taking my niece and we decided to tag along) and we had such a fun time. I know that if I asked any one of my family to come and help me out they would do whatever they could to help me. I’m very lucky to have that kind of support available to me.
+Visiting teaching. I actually did my visiting teaching this week (yay for me!) and it reminded me of WHY we do visiting teaching. To do some service; to connect with other people; and to remind each other of the importance of the gospel. It’s a good thing.

And the list goes on and on and on. Even as I was in an emotionally fragile state due to some minor inconveniences and some major PMS, I was able to count my blessings and realize how truly blessed I am.

The difference between a bad day and a good day is still 24 hours.

So if life is getting you down, or if you yourself are caught up in some hormonally induced blues, take a few minutes to think about or write down some things that you are thankful for. Even just listing 10 things can really lift you out of that funk.
Or take a few minutes and do some service for someone else.
Or call me and we’ll go to lunch. That always helps.

What did you do this summer? Oh, I drove to Provo 8,000 times

July 21, 2011 / / 2 Comments

I picked up our Chinese girls on Tuesday night. Since then it’s been twice daily trips to Provo. It’s 35-45 minutes each way. I’ve failed in all attempts to get a carpool. There is only one other family in Highland with exchange students, and they have already teamed up with another family in Lehi. I had made a few phone calls with a lady in American Fork to carpool, and things looked promising, until she sent me an email late last night stating that she was going to carpool with another family, who only has 4 seats available, so they could not add us to that mix. (What, is it my personality? Do I have B.O.? And if I did, how could you tell that from over the phone?)

Frustrated, I got in the gas hog and drove my two girls to Provo this morning. Trying to look on the bright side of things, I thought, “I wanted to check out Ross or TJMaxx for a bedspread. I’ll just stop in there before I head home and do a little kid-free browsing.” Nope. Those stores are not open at 8:15 am. Fail again.

I had made arrangements to pick the girls up directly from Timpanogos caves this afternoon, which is about an 8-10 minute drive from my house, instead of the trip to Provo. I think the girls were relieved as well to not have to climb on the bus for an hour, only to be hauled right back to the same area. I have tried calling and/or emailing every other family that lives remotely close to me (Cedar Hills, American fork), and even called a family that has buddies, thinking I might be able to dredge up a carpool with them on the buddy days. Not much luck.

I’m trying to not get totally frustrated here. I guess if I have to drive to Provo twice a day, I will do it, but I would so RATHER NOT spend all those hours in the car and all that money on gas.

One of the kids wistfully said how nice it would be to have a ski-lift that would take us all the way there. We could just get on the lift, ride over the cars and the traffic and the construction, and arrive at our destination. Great idea. Now if I could just get someone to build that for me.

“I WANT MY SLUSHIEEEEE”

July 17, 2011 / / 1 Comment

This week I had the opportunity to go to day camp up at camp Jeremiah Johnson with our ward’s activity day girls. I made the reservation, got the forms, and all that jazz.
Aside from the worrying that we would either have too many girls or not enough girls going, and the fact that I really didn’t want to spend my one free night of the week with a bunch of girls at camp, it was not a bad experience. Mostly not a bad experience. It was well run and fun for the kids. Which is amazing since I don’t think I saw an adult the whole time after we checked in. I’m not kidding! The whole place is run by 13-15 year old kids. And run well. These kids have enthusiasm, patience, and were responsible. Amazing, right?



By the time we were done, the girls were all crowding around the trading post to spend every last dollar they had brought. Jenna and two other girls had gotten slushies, and were sipping them. Yum. After a few last minutes of “shopping”, I started to round the girls up. “It’s time to go, girls. Wrap it up,” I said. Most of them came over and we made sure we had everyone. One little girl, who I will call ‘Jane’, came over, and then said, “But I wanted a slushie! We can’t go yet! I want a slushie!” Now, we had been milling around the trading post for at least 10 minutes allowing them to buy whatever they wanted, and she was just realizing that she wanted to buy a slushie? I don’t think so. I said calmly that she could not buy a slushie now, because we were going to the car, and there were no slushies allowed in the car. The other girls were already half finished with their slushies, and therefor they would be mostly gone by the time we got to the car.

Nothing doing. This little ‘Jane’ proceeded to throw a fit. “But that’s not FAIR! I wanted to buy a slushie, and I still have a dollar left! Why can’t I get a slushie?” By this time, I wasn’t going to let her get a slushie for the sole reason that she was being a royal pain. I remained calm (because this wasn’t my kid, after all) and told her that no, she wasn’t going to get a slushie. If she had wanted to buy one, she should have done that 10 minutes ago, and now we were leaving. Reluctantly, she followed up to the car, complaining the whole way. This girl can REALLY ramble on.

Not knowing if I could really survive the whole drive home without my head exploding if I had to hear about the injustice of her slushie and that fact that she didn’t get one. I said, “Sarah I mean ‘Jane’, you have twenty seconds to complain about your slushie. Go!” I was looking at my watch to count the seconds. ‘Jane’ did not say anything for a few seconds until I said, “Only 16 seconds left, you’d better get started.”
“I WANT MY SLUSHIE!” she began, “You didn’t let me get a slushie, even though I wanted one, and that’s not fair that I didn’t get to get a slushie and those girls got to get slushies…… (slushie, slushie, slushie….)”
“Three, two, one, done.” I said. “Now, there will be not one more word of complaining or mentioning slushies. Understood?”
She nodded. And we actually had a pleasant, slushie-free drive home.
And did I mention that I was very glad to bring MY daughter home with me, and let all those girls go home to their own parents?

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